A major twist occurred in the agreement drafted in Aso Rock to resolve the political crisis in Rivers State as six elders dragged the president and others to a Federal High Court in Abuja.
The elders sued Tinubu for allegedly compelling Gov Siminilaya Fubara to enter an unconstitutional agreement.
The plaintiffs, led by a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly representing Bonny State Constituency, Victor Jumbo, are two senators, Bennett Birabi and Andrew Uchendu; a retired rear admiral, O. P. Fingesi; an activist, AnnKio Briggs, and one other elder, Emmanuel Deinma.
The plaintiffs maintained that the said agreement, signed on December 18, was illegal and amounted to a usurpation, nullification, and undermining of the extant/binding relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
Consequently, they prayed the court to, among other things, determine whether President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Gov Sim Fubara, and the Rivers State House of Assembly have the rights and are entitled to enter into any agreement that has the effect of nullifying or undermining the constitutional/legal potency of the provisions of Section 109(I)(g) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
They contended that neither President Tinubu nor Gov Fubara had the statutory powers to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from conducting fresh elections to replace the 27 Rivers State lawmakers.
The lawmakers defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Meanwhile, President Tinubu was cited as the first defendant in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1718/2023.
Others are the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Gov Fubara, the Rivers Assembly, Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, and the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu.
